2003:
Phil Collins and Tina Turner perform at the world premiere of Disney's Brother Bear held at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is chosen as the movie of the year at the closing night of the seventh annual Hollywood International Film Festival in Beverly Hills, California.
One hundred forty-four PGA TOUR professionals and
144 amateurs take to the fairways at Disney's Palm and Magnolia golf courses for the 7-day Funai Classic at Walt Disney World Resort.
1901:
Academy Award-winning composer/songwriter, Disney Legend, and
Disney's Music Supervisor Frank Churchill is born in Rumford, Maine.
Churchill began his career playing piano in cinemas at the age of 15. After dropping out of medical school to pursue
a career in music, he became accompanist at the Los Angeles radio station KNX (AM) in 1924. He joined Disney six
years later. His music can be heard in Peter Pan, Dumbo, and Bambi. Some of his best known songs - "Who's
Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?," "Whistle While You Work," and "Some Day My Prince Will Come."
1922:
Actor John Anderson, the voice of Mark Twain and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt for Epcot's American Adventure attraction, is born in Clayton, Illinois.
(A recurring Twilight Zone actor, he starred in four different episodes, "The Old Man in the Cave", "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", and "A Passage for Trumpet".)
1924:
Disney's Alice Comedy, Alice Gets in Dutch is shown at the Piccadilly Theatre on Broadway in New York City. It is the first time an Alice Comedy is screened in a first-run Broadway theater.
1935:
Actor Jerry Orbach, the voice of Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, is born in The Bronx, New York. (A Tony Award-winning actor, he is best known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series.)
1955:
Eight time Academy Award-nominated film score composer Thomas Newman is born in Los Angeles, California. His Disney credits include Finding Nemo and WALL-E.
The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Circus Day.
1963:
A groundbreaking ceremony for the first Hollywood Museum takes place. Present are Rosalind Russell, Jack Warner, Gene Autry, and Walt Disney. (The museum will never be built.)
The TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs "The Wahoo Bobcat."
1965:
As Disney has secretly purchased much of the land
needed to build a new Florida theme park/resort,
news of the project is leaked to the Orlando Sentinel.
1997:
Disney Channel debuts Bear in the Big Blue House (produced by The Jim Henson Company).
1998:
Disney's The Lion King II: Simba's Pride has its world
premiere at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles.
2006:
The Disney Channel Original Movie Return to Halloweentown premieres.
The Perry Meridian High School Marching Falcons band from
Indiana perform on Disney World's Main Street as part of Disney's
Magic Music Days.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is generally re-released in Disney Digital 3D (the first time an analog 2D film has totally been turned into a digital 3D film).
Touchstone Pictures releases the mystery thriller The Prestige. Set in early 20th century London, the film tells the story of two rival magicians (played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) who are obsessed with creating the best stage illusion. (The film will earn $14,801,808 on opening weekend in the U.S.)
FedEx Express flew over
400 pieces of Walt Disney memorabilia from
California to Florida
for its "100 Years
of Magic" Celebration
at Walt Disney World.
1983:
Disney's Mickey's Christmas Carol, a twenty-four minute animated short film, is released in the United Kingdom. An adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic
"A Christmas Carol," the short features Scrooge McDuck as his namesake and inspiration Ebenezer Scrooge, Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit, and Donald Duck as Fred Honeywell - Ebenezer's nephew. The first animated short with Mickey Mouse since the 1953 The Simple Things, Mickey's Christmas Carol will be released in the U.S. the following December.
1995:
Buena Vista Pictures releases the Walt Disney Pictures feature film Frank
and Ollie to U.S. theaters. Featuring the lives and careers of Disney animators Frank Thomas and
Ollie Johnston (two of Walt's Nine Old Men), the documentary is directed by Ted Thomas (Frank's son).
"Ma chère mademoiselle. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite to relax, let us pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents... your dinner." -Lumiere
2007:
The Best of Both Worlds Tour, starring Miley Cyrus (as both herself and in character as Disney Channel's Hannah Montana) and featuring Jonas Brothers, pull into the i wirless Center arena in Moline, Illinois.
2008:
A new preview center opens at Disney’s California Adventure. Designed to look like the interior of an artist’s studio, Blue Sky Cellar features models, sketches, concept art and videos of a nighttime water show, Little Mermaid dark ride, Cars Land themed area and overall 1920s Los Angeles retheming plans for the park.
Elton John performs a charity concert at the New Amsterdam Theatre (currently the home to Mary Poppins) in New York City. The Broadway event celebrates the 35th anniversary of the American release of John's and Bernie Taupin's classic double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. John performs his favorite hits with a host of celebrity friends from the music and theatre worlds, including the cast of Disney's The Lion King. The star-studded event benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, the Elton John Aids Foundation and Friends In Deed. (A Disney Legend, John wrote the music for The Lion King and Aida.)
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2001:
The 6th Epcot International Food and Wine Festival begins at Walt
Disney World. More than 20 international food and wine marketplaces around World Showcase Lagoon represent different regions of the world.
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1982:
Although EPCOT has been opened since October 1, an official dedication takes place on this day for the new Japan Pavilion in World Showcase. A 10 a.m. dedication ceremony is followed by a Naorai and a buffet lunch reception at the Mitsukoshi Restaurant.
THIS DAY MADE IN THE USA
OCTOBER 20
OCTOBER 20
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1941:
Walt Disney, his wife Lillian, and eight of his employees arrive in New York City when the ship they are on, the Santa Clara, docks at 16th Street on this Monday morning. They have traveled from South America where they have spent the last 2 months. Three days later they will attend the world premiere of Dumbo at the Broadway Theater.
1993:
Clarence Nash (the original voice of Donald Duck) is among the 10 inducted as Disney Legends on this day.
1984:
The Stanley Ranch Museum in Garden Grove, California dedicates a garage known
as "The First Disney Studio." The structure was Walt's first "cartoon studio" (before he and Roy officially began the Disney Brothers Studio in 1923) and belonged to the home of his Uncle Robert - who Walt lived with for
a short time at 4406 Kingswell Ave. (He didn't stay too long at his uncle's garage though, as Walt moved down the
street on October 8, 1923, to 4651 Kingswell. There in the back of a real estate office he and his brother Roy
officially set up what is considered to be the first Disney Studio on October 16.) Featured at this day's dedication
are local officials, costumed Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters from Disneyland, Imagineer Bill Justice, more
than 100 Disney fans and an Official First Day Cover issue commemorating the dedication cancelled by the Garden Grove U.S. Post Office.
1931:
Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Fox Hunt, directed by Wilfred Jackson, is released. A wild fox hunt ends when the hunters encounter a skunk instead of a fox!
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Jerry Orbach born
1993 Disney Legends
2009:
Disney's A Christmas Carol Train Tour pulls into Jacksonville, Florida.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall hosts an event called The Disney
Symphonic Legacy - a program featuring, for the first time ever at the Hall, Disney
music. It also marks the Disney Hall debut of longtime Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conductor John Mauceri.
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